I am not going to argue liberal or conservative here. I especially will not argue democrat or republican, which are fast becoming two differnt things from liberal and conservative.

Instead I am going to ask a ridiculous question: Would you trust your plumbing to them?

Most of you are probably saying, “Of course not!” The others are probably laughing at the idea of Clinton or Gingrich holding a plunger.

The point is that when you have a problem with your plumbing, you hire a plumber, or find some sort of expert. Someone with years of experience and education in fixing the problem, who knows precisely what they are looking at and get right down to business. Obviously, politcians lack the kind of experience to handle these things, but what then, is their expereince for? This all leads to the main point, one that is often overlooked. In any other situation, what we see in government would be dismissed as an incredibly bad idea.

To put it simply, what on earth do these people know?

For example, on the issue of health insurance, the two beasts fought each other with zeal. Each side declared the other to be taking someones freedom and impugning their rights. Both sides thought they were right, and they both were, to a certain extent. But that discussion is for another time, because under all the political intrigue and idealogical debate, nobody actually considered letting the people in health care decide.

The most telling example is when various politcians quoted statements and used models from the Mayo Clinic, without notifying them, only to have the clinic come out publically and seperate themselves from the issue, because the models and statements were being misinterpreted and misused.

For those who dont know, the Mayo Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world. Catering to the needs of celebrites and politcal figures, including the Dali Lama, it provides services on par with John Hopkins, its only real rival. Founded in the city of Rochester, Minnesota, the clinic employs the majority of the 100,000 people plus city. Not to mention the two other major branches in Florida and Arizona. Suffice to say, when the Mayo Clinic makes a statement, it carries weight, and with very good reason. Undoubtly, they know more about healthcare and health insurance than perhaps any other organization, with the possible exception of John Hopkins. Plus, they have never excepted government money, have been in an almost constant state of exspansion and growth, and are a non-profit, unmotivated by greed.

These are the people who should have been entrusted with healthcare reform. The experts with decades of experience with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of paitents and a track record for doing the right thing, both morally and logically, that extends all the way back to the Mayo Brothers and their practice in the then small town of Rochester.

This trend of not trusting the experts with intensely complex and important issues is not limited to healthcare either. Do we really think that any of the politicians, except perhaps the Bush family, know anything about drilling for oil? Or, for that matter, the enviorment in general? When people say that the oil pipelines from Alaska have altered caribou migtation routes, they are right. However, they migrate to the pipelines now, because they like the warmth. The pipeline actually benefits the herds. Not that it isnt detremental as well, just that the full issue is not being discussed. Why not leave whether an area is important or not to ecologists and geologists, who actually have the years of training to understand what it is they are looking at.

You had politicians decide to let sub-prime loans be legal in the afforadable housing act, so that people (obviously) could afford housing. Yet, who could have forseen what happened instead? Only an economist and banking expert, who, looking over the bill, might have seen the potential for disaster.

Important research is always at the mercy of the whims of politicians as well. Consider the early restrictions on stem cell research, or the restrections of GMO’s. But these people are not scientists, they are unlikely to even understand the research they are banning and restricting, and act purely out of ethical ideals. Obviously, ethics has a place in law, as that is the foundation for a moral society. But it should not be at the exspense of good sense.

So how do we solve this problem? More accurately, can we?

It certainly isnt working now, whoever is in power, whether they are democrat or republican, or tea partier or occupier, they follow their idealogies instead of reason. Sure they have good intentions, but the worst harm can result of them. What is needed is a change in the culture of politics. Politics is consumed with hubris and stubborness, people rise to that level because of charisma, connections, and the belief that “they”” can fix what is broken.

In short, politicians need to listen and then prove that they can actually say, “I was wrong, but I have learned.”